The Lakes Entrance Regional Historical Society had an opening night to celebrate the beginning of its exhibition A Voyage of No Return: Shipwrecks on the East Gippsland Coast last Thursday evening.
The exhibition is being held at the Lakes Coastguard building on the Esplanade from January 10 to 27.
It will feature many of the hundreds of shipwrecks along the coast and provide stories of crew, passengers and survivors.
The president of the Lakes Entrance Historical Society, Anne Macarthur, spoke at the opening and presented an Acknowledgement of Country and welcomed all guests present, including Federal MP Darren Chester and East Gippsland Shire Councillor Arthur Allen.
Anne also thanked the Volunteer Coast Guard for generously offering their building for the exhibition.
She acknowledged the organisations who assisted with funding, those being East Gippsland Shire, Heritage Network East Gippsland and Gippsland Community Foundation.
“The historical society had a Shipwreck exhibition on their ‘want to do’ list for a long time,” Anne said.
“We were very fortunate to receive copious and detailed notes from Mary Doland, compiled for her Masters degree, which prompted action.
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“There were so many ships lost and disasters along the Gippsland coast it was hard to select which ones to include, but 25 posters were made with the text written and images sourced by secretary Judy Davies and made to look fantastic by the gifted Nina Petrie.
“There is also a slideshow expanding on some of the stories and including lesser known wrecks,” Anne said.
After the exhibition is finished in Lakes Entrance, it will move to Mallacoota.
Anne thanked the committee for the huge amount of work they have put into producing the exhibition and introduced counciller Arthur Allen who officially opened the exhibition.
Cr Allen spoke of the way many of these shipwrecks are intertwined with family names in Lakes Entrance.
“In fact, my great, great grandfather William Carstairs lost his life off the coast of Mallacoota,” Cr Allen said.
“Between the fishing and settlers there are many tragedies that affected our town,” he said.
Cr Allen congratulated the historical society on the exhibition and declared it open.
It will run daily from 10am to 4pm and the public are invited to come and browse. Admission is free with any donations gratefully accepted.
